- The partnership will enable farmers to access information of PoPs in the Crop Production Guide 2020 through Outgrow’s mobile app
- WayCool will also offer live projects, Internships and placements for TNAU students under the MoU
Coimbatore, February 3rd, 2023: Aspiring to provide farmers with access to Package of Practices (PoPs) of important crops under the Crop Production Guide 2020, The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), has signed a mutual pact with WayCool, India’s leading food & agri-tech platform, today. With the strategic collaboration, TNAU will enable the digitization of its existing PoPs to benefit farmers, in a quest to empower the farmer community in Tamil Nadu and support WayCool’s endeavours. The PoPs will be made available to farmers’ under Outgrow, WayCool’s farmer engagement arm, through its mobile apps.
The collaboration will provide TNAU faculty members as resource people to train farmers and open grounds for them to research on organic farming in the Outgrow Agriculture Research Station (OARS). Moreover, WayCool will extend opportunities to the varsity’s students to take part in live projects, facilitate internships and placements, and organize field visits to the OARS facility, and help in their journey toward entrepreneurship.
Commenting on the partnership, Honourable VC Dr. Geethalakshmi Vellingiri, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University said, “We established the university with the vision of promoting scientific agriculture and allied sectors to the farmers and agri-based industries. Our association with WayCool aligns our vision and our end objectives to encourage the productivity and profitability of farms while ensuring environmental safety and rural livelihood. We are also keen to team up with the agro-player since our students will gain exposure, enhanced skills, and better opportunities. We take pleasure in supporting the company to transform the agricultural sector and create value for the Indian economy through its demand-based supply chain module. We would further be happy to contribute towards capacity building- technical assistance funds, Climate Funds, and Regenerative Agriculture, along with both pre-harvest and post-harvest aspects in handling produce from farms.”
Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Sanjay Dasari, Co-founder, WayCool Foods, said, “With an ever growing population, it has become all the more vital for India to adopt proper agricultural practices that produce high quality food at a large scale. This has been driving a shift towards precision farming, giving farmers more control over their agricultural practices. There is a need, now more than ever, to create a robust and standardized package of practices and simultaneously work with farmers for their adoption. We are happy to associate with Tamil Nadu Agricultural University who will support us in our endeavours of making natural precision farming accessible, and profitable”
Adding to this, Mr. N Sendhil Kumar, Head – Outgrow & Farmer Engagement, WayCool Foods, said, “ This partnership is another milestone in our efforts to revolutionize the agri-space and empower farmers holistically. The Crop Production Guide 2020 will play a pivotal role in helping the farmers across TamilNadu to acknowledge important crop varieties, farm implements and technologies that will suit the prevailing climate change scenario and accustom their agricultural techniques accordingly. Moreover, the digitization of PoPs developed by TNAU will render easy access to information to them, whilst also extending knowledge base of the same through videos. We are delighted to have TNAU onboard and are confident that this MoU will help us achieve significant strides in the sector.”
About Outgrow: Outgrow is the agricultural and farmers engagement arm of WayCool, established on 4th March 2020. The AI-based platform – Outgrow app has over 2 lakh downloads. Backed by a team of agri-doctors, Outgrow provides comprehensive advisory and customized solutions to over 150000+ farmers. The Outgrow app offers services like crop information on health, automated soil testing, climatic condition real-time mandi price, and holistic farm advisory for the farmers network in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, and Telangana.
About WayCool: WayCool Foods is India’s leading food and agri-tech platform. Focusing on food development and distribution, the company leverages innovative technology to scale and operate a complex supply chain from soil to sale. Through its farmer engagement program – Outgrow, the company works closely with 200k farmers. WayCool operates a full stack, broadline product range across multiple channels and categories such as fresh produce, staples, and dairy, serving over 1,25,000 clients in the general trade, modern trade, and food services space. WayCool’s consumer brands basket consists of Madhuram, Kitchenji, L’exotique, Dezi Fresh and Freshey’s.
About TNAU: The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) had its genesis from establishment of an Agricultural School at Saidapet, Madras, Tamil Nadu, as early as 1868 and it was later relocated at Coimbatore. In 1920 it was affiliated to Madras University. TNAU assumed full responsibilities of Agricultural Education and Research and supported the State Agricultural Department by delivering research products. Till 1946, the Agricultural College and Research Institute, Coimbatore, was the only Institute for Agricultural Education for the whole of South India. In 1958, it was recognized as a Post-graduate Centre leading to Masters and Doctoral degrees. The Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai was established in 1965. These two colleges formed the nucleus of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University while it was established in 1971.
